by ELM
【1】
On March 14, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order cutting funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media and six other federal agencies. This executive order has the most significant impact on the operations of Voice of America and other news organizations, including the Associated Press, essentially amounting to a shutdown.
The issue is that the White House also delivered a harsh blow: it labeled Voice of America as "Radical Voice of America" and stated that Trump's executive order would "ensure that taxpayers no longer fund radical propaganda." This raises the question: where exactly is Voice of America being radical? Upon closer examination of the White House's official statement, it becomes clear that the White House claims Voice of America's reporting is "overly biased" towards former President Biden and includes criticism of white privilege and racial discrimination, as well as coverage of transgender immigrants seeking asylum.
The label of "radical" might be understandable if it were applied by a Chinese Communist Party-controlled media outlet to Voice of America. However, it is surprising that it comes from their own side, leading one to lament that it is a case of "friends hurt, enemies rejoice." The Global Times, formerly led by Hu Xijin/胡锡进, is celebrating with great fanfare: "The so-called 'beacon of freedom' sign of Voice of America is now despised by its own government like a dirty rag." Although the White House was referring to Biden, it has been exploited by various Chinese Communist Party media outlets skilled at muddying the waters.
【2】
The White House took the lead, and domestic Chinese media, from official Party outlets to red self-media influencers, have all jumped on the bandwagon to smear Voice of America. One of the most significant slanders may be labeling Voice of America as the "radical propaganda" of the Biden administration in the United States. Some internet users even call Voice of America a "rumor mill."
So, let's pick an example and compare to see the differences between the reporting of Voice of America and typical Party media like People's Daily, to understand what constitutes news and what is propaganda.
Google the keywords "Voice of America Panama withdraws from Belt and Road" and "People's Daily Panama withdraws from Belt and Road" respectively (this news topic was randomly chosen due to recent news about Li Ka-shing/李嘉诚, but other topics should yield similar results). The main news reports that come up are:
Voice of America (in Chinese): "Panama Withdraws from Belt and Road: Analysis - China Will Exert Influence at Diplomatic, Corporate Levels"
People's Daily/People's Net, pitifully, only has this (in Chinese): "Foreign Ministry: Resolutely Oppose Irresponsible Remarks from the US Side on the Panama Canal Issue"
This "news" report is really substandard. Let's also look at a similar report from Guancha.cn, a major external propaganda outlet: "Panama Plans to Terminate Belt and Road Memorandum of Understanding, China: Lodged a Stern Representation with Panama"
In comparison, the three can be said to be worlds apart:
Voice of America's reporting is true journalism, encompassing all the elements of a news report: the 5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how). It is also objective (presenting the views of both parties involved), accurate (listing all names and proper nouns with verifiable sources), and timely. As a news report, it has a clear structure and sufficient evidence.
In contrast, the article from People's Daily can only be described as a copy-paste of a standard Party propaganda document. It Cannot be considered a news report at all, as it lacks most of the essential elements of journalism. The 5W1H are missing, as is objectivity. Reading through it, it feels like a leader's speech, and the reader only learns that the Chinese Communist Party opposes Panama's withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative. However, why did Panama withdraw? Unknown. Who in Panama spoke? Unknown. How was it said? Unknown. What was said? Unknown. What will be the future impact? Completely unknown.
Such propaganda pieces, which offer conclusions without logic, are precisely the most common brainwashing articles in the simplified Chinese circle within the Great Firewall.
The "news quality" of Guancha.cn is slightly better than that of People's Daily, but not by much. At least it includes the 5W1H of a news report, but it falls short of Voice of America's reporting in terms of depth, breadth, and objectivity. It is not as rigidly propagandistic as People's Daily, but at best, it is a memorandum of a leader's speech.
After reading numerous reports on the same news from Voice of America and Party-controlled media within the Great Firewall, readers can easily distinguish between what is a news report and what is Party propaganda. Media outlets naturally have their own political leanings (and having no leanings is a leaning in itself), but as news organizations, they should at least possess the basic elements of journalism. If they have these basic elements, they are qualified news media; if not, they are propaganda, differing only in the degree of disguise.
This is the difference between news and propaganda.
To summarize the characteristics of news reporting simply:
News emphasizes objective reporting,
objective opinion commentary (even if it's just listing the views of the parties involved),
information sources should be multi-channel and cross-verifiable,
news is bound by journalistic standards and strives to be free of emotional rhetoric. — This is what you feel when reading Voice of America.
In contrast, Party propaganda (whether external or internal) is the opposite in all these aspects and deviates from the standards of news reporting:
Propaganda does not emphasize objectivity; it reports or simply does not report (gets censored) according to the Party's needs (such as so-called "maintaining stability");
Party propaganda shuns objective opinions and cannot possibly list the views of all parties involved;
The information sources for Party propaganda are only Party documents and Party departments, with no possibility of cross-verification; the "foreign media" cited are mostly rebranded internal propaganda like CGTN;
Party propaganda is not bound by journalistic standards but is very adept at stirring readers' emotions (especially anti-American and anti-Japanese sentiments). — This is what you feel when reading People's Daily.
By Understanding the above, you'll know who provides objective news reporting and who is the rumor mill. When reading Voice of America, you can agree or disagree, and you'll know what to agree with or disagree with, what keywords to search for if you want to verify the sources, and so on. After reading People's Daily, under the cover of empty and boring clichés, the amount of information is pitifully small. You might remember a few terms, but who said what, why they said it, what the full text is, how to verify it, and what the other parties think and say... you won't know any of it. Over time, language affects intelligence, and the brain becomes rigid, achieving the effect of propaganda plus brainwashing that the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of Truth aims for.
This characteristic of Party propaganda can well explain these issues:
Why do simplified Chinese media within the Great Firewall have low credibility internationally? Because everyone knows that Party media are propaganda institutions, not news institutions;
Why is the quality within the simplified Chinese circle deteriorating? Because the more propaganda there is, the less capacity for critical thinking there is.
【3】
It is precisely because we see the difference between news and propaganda that we can say Trump's closure of Voice of America and other websites has greatly assisted the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of Truth. It significantly reduced the resources available to help readers improve their critical thinking and resist brainwashing propaganda. This is one of the many short-sighted moves by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
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